Jaimie Franklin
Assistant News Editor
The band has amazing performances in San Francisco festival, Hollywood and Santa Barbara Bowls.
After the long-awaited release of “In Rainbows” last year by the eccentric and legendary English rock band Radiohead, their summer tour of the United States, which concluded in Santa Barbara on Aug. 28, had been buzzing in the media for months.
A band with a cult-like following, Radiohead incorporates rock and electronic influences to release a sound all their own.
The spiritual experience of the Radiohead shows at Outsidelands Festival in San Francisco on Aug. 22 and the Hollywood Bowl on Aug. 24 are two shows worth reviewing.
Though always impressive, Radiohead is better live than recorded. The band delivered flawless sets on both nights under the backdrop of a mesmerizing stage light system that perfectly complemented the music.
Radiohead headlined the Outsidelands Festival in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. With an attendance upwards of 50,000 people standing in a grassy field, they still managed to pull off an amazingly intimate performance.
Indie-rocker Beck opened on a different stage, roughly a ten minute walk from the main stage. With only a few minutes allocated for the crowd to make it to the main field, a mob mentality ensued. Hundreds of concert-goers cut through hillsides peppered with poison oak and tore down chainlink fences meant to contain the crowd.
Thousands sprinted across the long field to the main stage as Radiohead opened their two-hour set with “15 Step” from the 2007 album “In Rainbows.” The song’s dance-like beat and uplifting guitar riff captured the excitement that had built up for Radiohead’s performance throughout the day.
The band followed it with “There, There,” an old favorite from the 2005 album, “Hail to the Theif,” which got the crowd dancing and singing along.
The highlight of the set was the 1997 hit “Karma Police” from “OK Computer,” which the band rarely plays live. The crowd chanted in unison with lead-singer Thom Yorke as he sang a drawn out, “This is what you get / When you mess with us.”
Throughout the set, the crowd was enthralled in the music and, at times, remained completely silent, which was something I have never seen in the festival setting. At festival shows, there is usually someone screaming in your ear for two hours, spilling beer down your back and flinging his sweat at you while he attempts to dance.
Radiohead concluded the set with “Everything in its Right Place,” from “Kid A,” which carried on for several minutes after the band’s exit, with mixed piano tones, syncopated drum beats and the reverberating line, “There are two colors in my head.”
Luckily, the experience was relived at the Hollywood Bowl two nights later in first row box seats.
The Hollywood show was an entirely different experience than at Outsidelands. The crowd was rowdier and littered with celebrities and musicians, including the guitarist and drummer of the Brooklyn indie rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
Radiohead’s set was almost identical, but they withheld playing “Karma Police” and “Fake Plastic Trees,” another favorite from the 1995 album, “The Bends.”
Songs from “OK Computer” received the best response from the crowd. “Exit Music (For a Film)” was performed perfectly — its haunting lyrics and slow rhythm ultimately erupted in distorted guitar and screams from Yorke as the crowd moved slowly to the beat.
Yorke’s stage presence was riveting. Known in the press for his introverted and media-shy personality, such a showman was unexpected. While he barely said a word on stage, his movements were sharp and eye-catching.
During the fast-paced “Bodysnatchers” from “In Rainbows,” Yorke seemed to be overtaken by the music, jerking his body across the stage and flinging his arms in rhythm, mirroring the intense energy of the song.
Radiohead destroyed the barrier that generally exists between bands performing and fans watching. Whether one is an obsessed cult follower or a casual listener, the Radiohead experience is both emotionally jarring and calmly spiritual.
09-04-2008
